Birmingham News fileLawyers for Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford, above, and two co-defendants want the May 5 trial delayed until at least September.

Lawyers for Birmingham, Alabama, Mayor Larry Langford and two associates today asked a federal judge to delay their May criminal trial to at least September.

They need more time to examine evidence released to them by federal prosecutors, according to a joint motion filed in U.S. District Court at Birmingham. The trial for Langford, Montgomery investment banker Bill Blount and lobbyist Al La Pierre is set for May 4.

"Counsel for the defendants believe that a miscarriage of justice would occur if the defendants were forced to go to trial without the benefit of having examined the evidence against them which has been provided to them in discovery by the government," the motion said.

The men are charged in a 101-count indictment alleging conspiracy and bribery. Blount is accused of lavishing Langford with at least $236,000 in cash, clothes and jewelry in exchange for a large piece -- almost $7 million -- of county business when Langford was a Jefferson County commissioner. La Pierre is accused of being the middleman.

There are hundreds of thousands of documents to be reviewed, the defense motion said.

"The task of reviewing the documents has not been finished," the motion said.